It’s the Pittsburgh Steelers’ annual Thursday night game. So it must be time for everyone at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex to bemoan the short preparation week between games, right?
Not exactly. As a matchup at the Cleveland Browns looms Thursday, the talk among the Steelers about the two-games-in-five-days stuff was mostly just a figurative, collective shrug.
“This short week stuff, everyone complains about it whenever it’s their turn to play,” veteran guard David DeCastro said. “They complain, but it’s equal. It’s equal footing for both teams.
“Everyone complains about it but at this point with Thursday games, what’s the point of complaining about it? You’ve just got to go out and do it.”
The NFL had done sporadic Thursday night games for decades – but it’s only been since 2013 that every team in the league played in one of the contests. The NFLPA and scores of individual players have, at times, made it be known that three days off between professional football games is not enough for the human body. Some fans even have noted a perceived lack of quality of play.
Dislike for Thursday night football games almost unanimous among #Steelers players and fans, writes @TimBenzPGH >> https://t.co/mRVUeli6mD pic.twitter.com/tzVT652SN7
— Tribune-ReviewSports (@TribSports) November 14, 2017
“It’s hard on the body,” linebacker Bud Dupree said, “but it’s something we’ve got to deal with and just go out there and do it.”
Competitively, though – barring perhaps a long flight (the Steelers will bus to Cleveland) – there is seemingly no disadvantage for one team or the other during Thursday games.
“We are both dealing with it; it’s not like the scale is tipped either way,” Steelers defensive captain Cameron Heyward said. “Cleveland is preparing for us, we are preparing for them.
“It comes down to who can execute on a short week. The gamepan is a little more simple; it comes down to execution and who makes the fatal errors that cost them the game.”
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